BOD is so rare that we don't actually know when it has been applied. I don't know of any instance about anybody who actually didn't make it to his Baptism. Do you?
There have been a few recorded instances of specific cases in which baptism of desire has been applied.
Pope Innocent II, basing himself on the authority of Sts. Ambrose and Augustine, taught that a priest who had died without the water of baptism would still be freed from original sin because of his desire for baptism (Denzinger 388). The same pope relays the fact that St. Ambrose taught the same regarding a man named Valentinian who died before receiving the baptism he desired to receive (ibid.).
Pope Innocent III also taught that an unnamed Jewish man received baptism of desire (Dz. 413). Although the man did not receive a valid baptism, because he tried to administer it to himself at the moment of death, his faith in the sacrament sufficed to cleanse him from original sin (ibid.).
Those who reject baptism of desire will probably object that the above examples are not
ex cathedra teachings. I will reply that the Council of Trent explicitly taught baptism of desire in a solemn definition. They will reply that Trent teaches that desire
and water are needed, although it says desire
or water. The debate will then become pointless as we wrangle over the meaning of
aut in Trent. Nevertheless, there you have it, two popes far removed from Modernism teaching baptism of desire.
I know of the above cases. What I meant was from our
personal experience, has anybody known about somebody preparing for and
not making it to the Baptism because of some untoward incident that took his life. It is then that we can say, "He most probably was saved." More probabilities: since Baptism remits all sins including the penalties attached to them, this person would bypass Purgatory. Of course the anti-BODs and Feeneyites would never buy these and the whole thing is moot.
In the 40 days before Christ ascended to Heaven there isn't much recorded by the holy Scriptures about what Christ and the Apostles (and other disciples) did. But we know that He told them:
John 16:
12 I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth.
John 14:
26 ... the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.
Was any teaching left out leading to Pentecost and beyond? Hardly. I believe everything was covered, since the Church's main preoccupation (lex suprema - supreme law) is the salvation of souls. That includes the teaching of desire for Baptism and the desire for martyrdom. But the anti's want the extraordinary and infallible declaration from the Magisterium and nothing else will do.
When we listen to the Dimonds and Feeney followers "preach," we ask who gave them the authority and where did they get the commission to preach? Jesus Himself was asked, "Who sent you?" (Matthew 21:23)
